Thursday, January 8, 2015

Chilemba Could Fight Beterbiev

Light heavyweight contender has been calling out prospect Artur Beterbiev on Twitter over the past few weeks. BoxingNews24.com reports that the matchup is in the works and could take place on March 14 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada on the undercard of Sergey Kovalev-Jean Pascal.

Beterbiev was an amateur star who has frightening power. He's posted seven KOs in seven professional fights. One of those knockout victims was former beltholder Tavoris Cloud, the Russia-native's most impressive win to date. But Beterbiev's style is a bit crude at this stage of his career. He punches wide and needs an opponent to come at him to land punches. He abandons the jab too quickly. If an opponent is brave enough, Beterbiev is there to be hit.

Chilemba (23-2-2, 10 KOs) could be a matchup nightmare for the highly touted Beterbiev. Isaac is a slippery defensive master who can use subtle movement in the pocket or box from the outside. The main criticism of Chilemba is he isn't always busy enough offensively to convince the judges.

With Beterbiev's inability set up his power punches unless the opponent is right in front of him and Chilemba's economical offense, it could make for a slow fight. In addition, that the bout would be located in Beterbiev's adopted hometown of Montreal could call the scoring into question.